Rootbound is Deb Kauffmann’s singing and rhythm guitar work, combined with Henry’s Koretzky’s mandolin, lead guitar, and vocals. This duo is mainly bound to roots of the country and bluegrass variety. The playing is sincere and uncomplicated, yet consistently beautiful.

Many of these songs are old, including Carter Stanley’s “I’ll Never Grow Tired Of You.” Even the newer ones, like Warren Zevon/Jorge Calderon’s “Fistful of Rain” or Bruce Springsteen's “If I Should Fall Behind,” come off sounding older than their composition dates. Kauffmann and Koretzky have also written a few of their own. But, like Gillian Welch, they have a way of making even current writings come off like old time campfire songs.

But whereas Welch takes the lion’s share of the lead vocals for the songs she performs along with David Rawlings, Kauffmann and Koretzky mostly harmonize together throughout the most of these fifteen tracks. The back cover of this CD pictures the pair performing together on a grass field. And these studio recordings aren’t much more complicated than that. But this simplicity is a good thing, because these quality songs do not need a whole lot of extra aural elements.

It is hard not to fall under the soothing spell of these finely played songs.

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